Segmentation of Ecotourists in Pahang National Park Based on Travel and Motivation Attributes

Abstract

The success of a national park as an ecotourism site depends on the visitation of
ecotourists. The physical and social impacts of mass tourist at the Taman Negara
(Pahang) National Park may invite conflicts between ecotourists and other
tourists. The purpose of the present study was to segment ecotourists based on
their motivations of visits in order to understand the conflicts among ecotourist.
This study eventually leads to behavioural differences related to their ecotourism
attributes. Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA) test was administered to
segment and predict ecotourist types. A total of 389 respondents were studied
using convenience sampling design. From the analysis, the ecotourists in Kuala
Tahan, Taman Negara (Pahang) National Park were consequently segmented
into (1) Hard-Core ecotourists, (2) Mainstream ecotourists, (3) Dedicated ecotourists, and (4) Casual ecotourists. The ecotourist groups were then
differentiated by fourteen variables of motivational items and three variables of
travel characteristics using the discriminant function analysis. Function 1,
labelled as freedom of choice, which made up of motivation factors include
knowledge, lifestyle, adventure and novelty, while Function 2 was labelled as wisdom
for pursuing travel, which include leisure and travel characteristics of ecotourists.
The Multiple Discriminant Analysis model has shown that there were several
relationships between ecotourist types and motivations and travel characteristic
variables. Nevertheless, the ecotourists segmentation procedure showed that
there was variation in terms of their awareness towards ecotourism attributes
namely nature, learning and education, environment, and socio-cultural
consciousness. Hard-core ecotourists were revealed as “true” ecotourists
compared to the other types of ecotourists because they placed higher
importance upon nature learning and education and environmental
consciousness. Because distinctively different ecotourist types exist at the park,
management and promotional efforts should also be approached and
implemented differently by the Park’s management and authority in order to
fulfill the needs of the different types of ecotourists, specifically the Hard-core
ecotourists. The practice should also be parallel to the country’s objectives of the
Park’s nature conservation. Here, the inclination of the Hard-core ecotourists
toward nature necessitates more nature in-depth and cultural programmes.